- Joined
- Nov 30, 2024
- Messages
- 17
Hello all,
So today I finally got to pick up my chromatopelma cyaneopubescens juvenile and she is gorgeous. Her name is Dia, to contrast my Pulchra, Noche, and I was surprised to find that she already has most of her adult colors. Her prosoma and opisthosoma are no bigger than Noche's, but she's not built so stocky and has longer legs, so she is probably 1/2-1cm larger than Noche. Maybe 2.5" - 3".
Anyways, I wanted to share some photos of her and of her enclosure, which I spent a lot of time planning and putting together. I originally bought an Exo-Terra Faunarium like I have for Noche, who appreciates a very uncluttered space, and gets very upset if I add anything besides her water dish and hide. She does heavy construction while I sleep, but sometimes I have to readjust her adjustments because she stuffs substrate into the ventilation slots that spill out onto the table and make a mess. I tamp it down, but she has excavated a deep burrow for herself where she's been spending a lot of time the last few weeks and rolls the excavated substrate out in little balls that she has arranged to give the enclosure a kind of half-pipe shape. I always wake up wondering what I will find, lol.
As for Dia, I just brought her home today. I bought her a different enclosure because I wanted to give her a little more height, so I could add fake plants and other elements that will allow her to web like crazy. I bought her a beautiful round of cork bark which I sawed into two half-rounds, but when I was sawing the piece for her burrow, it broke into a smaller piece than I anticipated. So, dug out a corner jammed it into the substrate, used my hand to expand the size of the hide, and made a kind of ramp down to it. She's already spent some time in it today, and she fits perfectly. Aside from the hide, the enclosure is filled with little branches, fake plants, and dried plant material I thought would make for excellent anchor points for her to web up. The breeder included a bunch of soil with webbing she's had since she was a sling and I've left it in the middle of the enclosure to reassure her.
Except for the recess where her burrow is, the the top of the enclosure is no more than 2 legspans to the substrate below. There is a cool little feeder port with a strong spring and magnet near the top right, plus access at the top, which is acrylic around the edges, and has a solid metal hinged opening in the middle that has diamonds punched in it that gives it the look of mesh, but there it is solid metal, no overlapping, and the holes are very tiny. I showed the breeder and she said the design looked safe to her.
Anyhow, it's night here now, but unlike Noche, Dia started exploring immediately. Most of the substrate is tamped down, damp Plantation Soil, with a layer of dry coco fiber on top, some damp sphagnum that will dry out soon enough and some webbed-up substrate from the container she was brought to the expo in.
About the photos: I tried to add as few as possible, while showing all the important details of the enclosure. There is a photo where you can see the entrance to her hide and her just outside it, just before she went and scoped it out for the first time. I really used my hand to dig it out and expand it so that there is plenty of room despite how small it might look. The hide is to the lower-left side of the hide when viewed from above. In the broad shot, you can see where the substrate level tapers down - this is the "ramp" for her to reach the "porch" of the hide.
So yeah! I'd love to hear some feedback. It's a much more crowded space than Noche's minimalist enclosure, but I want to give her lots of opportunities to web it up and I didn't go quite so high with the substrate because I figure her web tunnels will eventually rise as she works on them.
So today I finally got to pick up my chromatopelma cyaneopubescens juvenile and she is gorgeous. Her name is Dia, to contrast my Pulchra, Noche, and I was surprised to find that she already has most of her adult colors. Her prosoma and opisthosoma are no bigger than Noche's, but she's not built so stocky and has longer legs, so she is probably 1/2-1cm larger than Noche. Maybe 2.5" - 3".
Anyways, I wanted to share some photos of her and of her enclosure, which I spent a lot of time planning and putting together. I originally bought an Exo-Terra Faunarium like I have for Noche, who appreciates a very uncluttered space, and gets very upset if I add anything besides her water dish and hide. She does heavy construction while I sleep, but sometimes I have to readjust her adjustments because she stuffs substrate into the ventilation slots that spill out onto the table and make a mess. I tamp it down, but she has excavated a deep burrow for herself where she's been spending a lot of time the last few weeks and rolls the excavated substrate out in little balls that she has arranged to give the enclosure a kind of half-pipe shape. I always wake up wondering what I will find, lol.
As for Dia, I just brought her home today. I bought her a different enclosure because I wanted to give her a little more height, so I could add fake plants and other elements that will allow her to web like crazy. I bought her a beautiful round of cork bark which I sawed into two half-rounds, but when I was sawing the piece for her burrow, it broke into a smaller piece than I anticipated. So, dug out a corner jammed it into the substrate, used my hand to expand the size of the hide, and made a kind of ramp down to it. She's already spent some time in it today, and she fits perfectly. Aside from the hide, the enclosure is filled with little branches, fake plants, and dried plant material I thought would make for excellent anchor points for her to web up. The breeder included a bunch of soil with webbing she's had since she was a sling and I've left it in the middle of the enclosure to reassure her.
Except for the recess where her burrow is, the the top of the enclosure is no more than 2 legspans to the substrate below. There is a cool little feeder port with a strong spring and magnet near the top right, plus access at the top, which is acrylic around the edges, and has a solid metal hinged opening in the middle that has diamonds punched in it that gives it the look of mesh, but there it is solid metal, no overlapping, and the holes are very tiny. I showed the breeder and she said the design looked safe to her.
Anyhow, it's night here now, but unlike Noche, Dia started exploring immediately. Most of the substrate is tamped down, damp Plantation Soil, with a layer of dry coco fiber on top, some damp sphagnum that will dry out soon enough and some webbed-up substrate from the container she was brought to the expo in.
About the photos: I tried to add as few as possible, while showing all the important details of the enclosure. There is a photo where you can see the entrance to her hide and her just outside it, just before she went and scoped it out for the first time. I really used my hand to dig it out and expand it so that there is plenty of room despite how small it might look. The hide is to the lower-left side of the hide when viewed from above. In the broad shot, you can see where the substrate level tapers down - this is the "ramp" for her to reach the "porch" of the hide.
So yeah! I'd love to hear some feedback. It's a much more crowded space than Noche's minimalist enclosure, but I want to give her lots of opportunities to web it up and I didn't go quite so high with the substrate because I figure her web tunnels will eventually rise as she works on them.
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cage looks cool just a bit more difficult to clean or catch uneaten feeders with so many places to dig around looking. good luck and enjoy what its gonna do to cover all the work you put into that cage